The Eruption of Mount St. Helens
GLO Record of the Week for March 22, 2020
On March 27, 1980, a series of phreatic eruptions burst open the peak of Mount St. Helens located in Skamania County, Washington. The eventual major explosive eruption May 18, 1980, was the most significant eruption in the lower 48 states since 1915, when a much smaller eruption occured at Lassen Peak, California
Eruption Scale
The eruption was logged at a 5 out of 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). The total impact of the eruption caused over $1 billion in property damage, deposited ash in 11 states, and killed 57 people.
Reid Blackburn, a photojournalist documenting the eruption, was killed when a current of hot gas and volcanic matter buried his car.
Eruption Impact
The blast was equivalent to 24 megatons and impacted an area of 230 square miles around the mountain.
In the scene on the right, you can see what Mount St. Helens looked like before the eruption. Select the Layer List feature in the top right corner of the application, and turn on and off the "Before Eruption" button to see the impact of the blast to the surrounding area. At the same time, turn the Mount St. Helens USGS Topo Map on and off to see the difference between 1919, (the date of this map), and today. Select the Basemap Gallery, (to the immediate left of the Layer List icon), to toggle through all the available maps.
A Unique Land Exchange
The General Land Office Records Branch contains a set of records called Control Document Index (CDI) cards. These cards were first created in a microfilming effort in the 1950s under what was called the Records Improvement Project.
The documents in CDI affect or have affected the status of public lands, including those documents that control, limit, or restrict the availability of right or title to, or use of public lands. Some of these documents include:
- Executive Orders
- Presidential Proclamations
- Public Land Orders
- Other documents, such as deeds that convey title to public lands to the United States, including quit claim deeds, acquired easements, condemnation judgments and warranty deeds.
A "warranty deed" is a type of deed where the seller guarantees that they hold clear title to a piece of land and has a right to sell (or donate) it to the buyer. This type of deed provides the greatest amount of protection to the purchaser of a property.
The eruption of Mount St. Helens caused a unique series of land exchanges including the warranty deed shown below between the U.S. Forest Service and the Burlington Northern Railroad Company . The railroad company owned one square mile on top of Mount St. Helens in Section 9 of Township 8 North, Range 5 East, of the Willamette Meridian. The railroad company would exchange this parcel of land for U.S. Forest Service land elsewhere. These types of unique exchanges filled in the patchwork of lands that would become part of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
Page 1 of the Waranty Deed between The Burlinton Northern Railroad and the United States Government
Page 6 of the Waranty Deed showing Section 9 donated by the Burlington Railroad Company
To explore more records from the GLO Record of the Week please visit our archive here .
